UK’s Plans to House Asylum Seekers Will Cost More Than Hotels
- Sunak government planning to develop former military bases
- National Audit Office report found significant cost overruns
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Massive cost overruns mean UK government plans to house asylum seekers on former military bases and barges will cost even more than allowing them to remain in hotels, according to the official spending watchdog.
The National Audit Office said the Home Office now expects to spend £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) on its “large sites” program, which will see asylum seekers placed on the Bibby Stockholm barge berthed at a port in Dorset, on former Royal Air Force bases in Lincolnshire and Essex, and in former student accommodation in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.